Today marks the 40th Anniversary of the first gig of the legendary KISS; Yep, on this day back in January of 1973, Gene Simmons, Paul Stanley, Peter Criss and Ace Frehley performed together under this name for a mere handful of people at a place known as the Popcorn Club. This venue would later be renamed to The Coventry which is very familiar to those who know their KISStory. The band wore garish makeup and each of them was a character of their own design with The Demon, The Starchild, The Cat and the Space Ace and it was a shock to the Rock and Roll system of the time when they all appeared together in this manner.

Click The Logo For Our Past KISS Coverage

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I’ve never been shy of admitting how KISS is my favorite band above them all so when there is something cool being released I love being able to speak a little bit about it and that brings us to this release broadcast. I figured it was alright to do this one because I have been discussing when big catalog issues such as Frank Zappa, Pink Floyd and The Beatles had come out. While this is a singular release, it still spans a lengthy amount of releases and years. Take a look at the official specs below the logo. I coped the official press release for easier digestion.
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If you were a ever a KISS fan over the course of your life you just had to be over the moon when it was announced that two nights with guitarist Ace Frehley would be happening down at the legendary Times Square venue B.B. King Blues Club and Grill.   Each of the shows would be opened up by The Biters who I had never heard of before but was looking forward to as well since that is always something that adds to the value of seeing a show.  You can check out the full concert report by clicking the logo below as that will bring you over to the main site where we keep that and all the photos we shot.  Then feel free to scroll down for some additional side images.

The last time Ace played in NYC to my knowledge was over at the Best Buy Theater which was still called Nokia if memory serves me correctly. I didn’t make that show for some reason so I was very excited to see the guitarists name up on the Times Square lights of B.B. Kings. Here is the marquee that I always love to present to you all.

Ace Frehley Two Night!!! Get It? No? Two Nights

Build up your collection of venue show posters with this little bit of coolness right here. I told some of the venue management that having these for the fans to snag if they are early is a great thing and they become quite collectible. Personally I keep the smaller 3 * 5 cards as they are easier to stockpile at this stage of my life.

Ace Is Back & He Told You So....

As mentioned just above a few lines ago, Ace Frehley was not only touring for his loyal subjects, but also hoping to promote his new autobiography.  The book is called “No Regrets” and you can order a copy for yourself by clicking the link to Amazon.com that we have placed for you at the end of this narrative.   We were lucky enough to get a sneak peak at this tome and a signed Gibson guitar at the recent NY Comic Con which has been covered on the website already.  Feel free to dig that HERE.

Ace Frehley's "No Regrets" & Les Paul Guitar

Now that we’ve whet your palate about the musician and his new tome, just head over to Amazon.com via this code and order a copy. By doing so you’ll be showing them how PiercingMetal helps to see the artists we are writing about and that is never a bad thing.

Isn’t it amazing? I know that it makes my jaw drop when I realize that KISS’ legendary album “Destroyer” is officially 35 years old today. Released on March 15, 1976, “Destroyer” was the fourth KISS studio album and directly followed their seminal “Alive” double album live presentation. I’ve been a KISS fan for a very, very long time and while “Destroyer” is one of my very favorites of their catalog, it was not the first album that I ever purchased. I think that I bought “Alive II” when it first came out at The Record Factory and then ordered a whole bunch of the older studio albums via one of those music clubs where you bought one album at their club price but got five or six albums for a dollar apiece. I don’t remember exactly but I think it was something like that. I digress.

The album “Destroyer” really has some amazing KISS tunes on it, and many of them are regularly played by the band in concert to this day in 2011 and very likely going forward into the furture as well. It’s here that the world first heard “Detroit Rock City”, “King Of The Night Time World”, “Beth”, “God Of Thunder” and “Shout It Out Loud”. Not bad stuff to have five giant tunes in the repertoire on one single album is it. I’ll admit to also keeping a kind smile to “Do You Love Me”, “Great Expectations” and “Flaming Youth” but I never really took to “Sweet Pain”. That is just my two cents. What are your favorites from this album and what about it appeals to you the most? I would love to hear from you on it. I just wanted to use the official blog for the site to congratulate KISS on this particular milestone. Reaching 35 years is one thing, but reaching that anniversary and having the album still be as exciting as it was when it was first released is something absolutely magnificent.

Official Website: www.kissonline.com
Album Wikipedia Entry: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Destroyer_%28Kiss_album%29

The KISS albums were remastered in 1997 and unfortunately there doesn’t seem to be a special edition of this particular release at this time. That’s a shame but you can at least order the original remaster via the Amazon.com link below. Check out a very old review that was done on PiercingMetal.com for the album back in 2006 by clicking HERE.

The day was finally here for the world’s KISS fans as their newest CD “Sonic Boom” was unleashed upon the masses and if you lived in the United States or Canada, the recording would be available exclusively at Wal-Mart retailers.  This was pretty big news considering the fact that this is the world’s largest retailer and that some 2800 hundred stores would be setting up special KISS displays to commemorate the occasion.

A Typical Wal-Mart Superstore

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When I was growing up and all of my friends were collecting Baseball cards I had to say that the things that appealed to me a whole lot more were those weird advertisements that were found depicted on the “Wacky Packages” stickers. My love of absurd humor and wisecracks combined with my interest in comic books probably led this to being the case and soon this all moved onto an interest in Rock & Roll music, most specifically anything that the guys in KISS were doing. In 1978 they made the collector in me go absolutely crazy by sanctioning Don Russ cards to release the first real set of KISS trading cards and I had to say that I spent a lot of allowance money on the things in my quest to complete the set. Back in this ancient day, the packs were only $.20 apiece and I think contained five or six cards along with a horrible stick of gum. There were 66 total cards in the set and the backs featured relevant KISS information and formed a poster. Here is a graphic of the original wrapper that I found while clicking around. As I looked at it, I recall having hundreds upon hundreds of the individual cards and yet in today’s world only think that part of a full set is even in my possession somewhere in a closet that I have safely kept them in for posterity.

Since that time long, long ago there have been numerous other companies that delivered KISS in trading card form and each of them holds some special memories for the ardent KISS fan without any question. The bands reunion and makeup touring sparked a renewed interest in this sort of thing a few years ago and now thanks to the fine folks at Press Pass Inc., those collectors get yet another trading card set to add to their collection that is called KISS “Ikons”. I managed to get my hands on some samples of these wonderful cards and had to say that they made me feel like the kid who rushed to the candy store to buy those Don Russ cards back in 1978 all over again. In looking at the images that they used for the cards I had to say that they did a lot better than I thought they could have and even managed to now rate higher in my ranking of such things when I compared them to the already thought of as cool Cornerstone cards that we saw back in 1999. The trading cards had come a long way from the years of those Don Russ editions and thankfully there was no piece of plaster that was mislabeled as gum included in these. With so many different aspects in this set, I figured I would give a brief overview to better whet the palette for your love of all things KISS.

The set is composed of 90 base cards, and these seem to cover a wide number of years in the bands very rich history. They begin with the first album “KISS” and conclude with “Psycho Circus” it seems and that makes sense since at the time of this writing there is no new studio release from the band. In addition to the amazing images that we find on the faces of the cards, the backs are loaded with personal quotations from the group about a particular topic. For instance the first few cards feature commentary on the bands debut album “KISS” and they line out the songs one by one with members giving their fans insight. It might be nothing new to the hard core study, but it is damned cool for the regular Joe or new fan who wants to get more up to speed. The 90 cards have different labels to them such as “KISS and Make Up”, “Milestones In KISStory”, “KISS and Tell” and “KISS Doctrine”. Once you compile your full set I suggest you make the time to read each and every one since it works well to make you appreciate your new collectibles a little more.

The set also features what appear to be 12 stickers that don’t seem to follow any particular pattern and instead just deliver what the company felt would make a cool sticker. I don’t mind these being the part of a set but I would prefer additional trading cards or more premiums because my days of putting such things on notebooks or lunchboxes are long gone. Perhaps the youth of today can carry the torch forward in this fashion. The next treat I found appealing was the sets 18 “temporary tattoos” and that was because it reminded me of the KISS “Alive II” album which had included something similar when it was released originally. These temporary graphics don’t depict the actual “ink” that the band members sport themselves, but they are cool enough images that relate to the bands classic visages in a few different fashions. I’ve seen a number of Old and New School fans of the band showing off real KISS “ink” and I give them credit for raising the level of their support to skin deep intensity. The final thing that these sets feature is one of the Gene Simmons “memorabilia” cards, and these are probably the Holy Grail of the numerous boxes on the market and something that is very hard to find. Apparently, a real swatch of Gene’s clothing was embedded into a trading card and put in a number of packages to make you feel like you have discovered gold should you manage to find one. Either way, this was surely something that more than just KISS fans will enjoy if they take the time to look into it. There are really only a few bands that can successfully sell a trading card set and in no special order I think those bands are KISS, The Beatles and Elvis Presley. Yes bands like Gwar and Lordi are very visual, but I don’t think that fan base goes for such things. I could of course be wrong and think that a set featuring either of them would be cool. Maybe PressPass Inc. can look into other Horror Rockers and deliver a cool set of cards based on it sometime in the future.

We’ve provided a means for the fans to order a complete boxed set of these KISS cards and while a little pricy, these are beautiful cards and the buyer gets 5 cards to a pack, with 20 sealed packs in the also sealed box. I’m sure that one will be able to get most of the set and a bunch of the stickers by ordering one or two. Who knows, perhaps you will even get one of the treasured special Gene Simmons collectible memorabilia cards as well. You will not know unless you try and if you are like most KISS fans and I, then you have already placed your order for this. Press Pass Inc. will be releasing a follow up set to this edition entitled KISS “360” in the coming months and we will try to get some information on that set as well if possible.  Stay tuned.

Interested in learning what our views on KISS releases might be? Simply click the link below to be taken to all existing KISS review content currently on PiercingMetal.com:
http://www.piercingmetal.com/advsearchresults.php?what=kiss&where=artist

Welcome to Yankee Stadium

The answer to the question about whether the PiercingMetal.com Editor leans to either the Yankees or the Mets might be solved by the very existence of this article as it finds me being on point for an affair at the brand new Yankee Stadium as the new Hard Rock Café opened its doors with the help of Ace Frehley, Scott Ian, Frank Bello, Anton Fig and Darryl “DMC” McDaniels today. That’s not a bad show of New York musical support and when you add former Yankee Bernie Williams to the mix you have a really rousing opening. I’ve been to the Hard Rock Café a number of times at its other locations and even reviewed a couple of shows that had gone on there, so when the chance arose to see Ace and the Anthrax guys open up the new one I could hardly resist. Here is how the opening day experience went down for those who have interest in learning more.

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Having been a KISS fan since a year that I no longer choose to disclose, I could not resist the chance to be up front and center as their former guitarist headlined the Nokia Theater after being out of the limelight for so many years. The great show found the musician “Back In The New York Groove” and to read more just click the logo to be brought to our article on the main PiercingMetal.com site.